Media

James Hird is one of the most recognisable faces in Australia, but he is a face without a voice. On the other hand, nameless and faceless people are out in the media trying to snuff out his future at Essendon.

An environmental activist who received a suspended sentence for sending out a fake press release that prompted Whitehaven Coal's share price to crash has said he is sorry and accepts the court's decision.

In January last year, Jonathan Moylan, 26, of Newcastle sent out the release, announcing that the ANZ Bank was withdrawing $1.2 billion from the Maules Creek mine project in north-west NSW.

A total of $314 million was wiped from Whitehaven Coal's share price in response.

An environmental campaigner who distributed a fake press release that caused a coal company's share price to crash has avoided jail.

Jonathan Moylan received a 20-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to disseminating false information, but Supreme Court Justice David Davies ordered his immediate release on a $1,000 bond.

Moylan distributed a fake statement to the media purportedly from the ANZ bank in January 2013, which said the bank was withdrawing $1.2 billion in funding from a Whitehaven Coal mine project in north-west New South Wales.

A lone "citizen journalist" ended up as much a part of the Hackgate story as the high profile protagonists in court, having live tweeted the whole affair without the backing of a major media organisation.

Peter Jukes, a British dramatist turned journalist, represents the face of the new media, a digital warrior and re-invention of the old-school reporter hungry for an exclusive.

It's a far cry from the fading world of the red-top tabloids and struggle for relevance on Fleet Street that dominated the phone hacking trial.